Books

Story in Review: The Last Summer (of you and me) by Ann Brashares

November 19, 2015 by Abbigail Kriebs Leave a Comment

The Last Summer (of You and Me) by Ann Brashares is one of my favorite books. I first read it when I was about the same age as the main characters, which I think always makes a book feel more immediate to a reader, more pertinent to where they are in their life right then. Yes, it’s the same Brashares as the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants fame, but this time she’s written a novel for a slightly older audience.

Alice and her older sister Riley have spent summers on Fire Island for as long as they have been alive. Riley’s partner in crime lives next door. His name is Paul, and Alice is in love with him – and always has been. This summer is the first in three years where they will all be on the island together, and everything that can happen does – for better and for worse.

While the book at it’s heart is a love story, it’s also a novel about true friendship, about growing up and whether or not you can bring your childhood loves with you.

Favorite Quotes:

She preferred to save her lies for the people whose names she knew. – p. 4

You loved what you knew. You couldn’t help it. He couldn’t, though he did try. – p. 6

How familiar it felt to want his wants for him. That much had not changed. – p. 11

[As children] they talked about fish and they talked about God. But it was all the stuff in the middle that came to preoccupy you as you grew older. – p. 18

Sometimes you couldn’t face the sadness of being forgotten until you felt the comfort of being remembered again. – p. 19

So great was Riley’s imagination that she did not bother with the distinction between what was real and what wasn’t. – p. 45

She didn’t deserve it, which was to say she deserved better. – p. 61

There were many things in life like that. You couldn’t imagine it, and then it happened and you couldn’t imagine it hadn’t. – p. 94

Only the places she hadn’t yet visited met her expectations. – p. 105

Maybe there weren’t two kinds of love. Maybe there were a trillion kinds. Or just one. – p. 112

He was weary of being stupid. – p. 124

What if he learned to love what he had? – p. 145

A lifetime of planning could be canceled in less than five minutes, it turned out. – p. 164

Her heart mismanaged its work of beating. – p . 180

What made this a good story? I loved how deftly Brashares captures that mixture of longing and dread Alice feels at seeing Paul again, and having life move forward now that she is an adult. It’s a hard feeling to put into words, and she nails it. It’s also interesting to note that all of the characters in this book are flawed in one way or another, and yet there is something lovable about each of them. I’ve read this book no less than 5 times and every time I find something new. This read through, I felt more compassion for Paul’s mom than I may have in times past, even when she is not the most deserving person.

What could have made this a better story? I can’t think of anything. The story holds up, after multiple reads at multiple ages.

Have you read The Last Summer (of You and Me) by Ann Brashares? If so, what did you think?

P.S. If you liked this book, you’ll probably enjoy Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell.

Story in Review: These Are The Moments by Jenny Bravo

November 12, 2015 by Abbigail Kriebs 2 Comments

These Are the Moments by Jenny Bravo was the slow Sunday afternoon that I needed. It’s a novel for 20-somethings who aren’t sure what the next step in life is. For the ones hung up on the past or on a boy. For the ones who just want a good will they/won’t love story to make them feel alive.

Wendy cannot get past Simon. He was her first love, her only love. She hasn’t seen him in over a year, but the marriage of her best friend to his best friend brings them back into each other’s circles, causing her to reevaluate every time they tried to make it work – and whether or not she wants to try again.

Bravo tells their story in alternating chapters of “Then” and “Now,” allowing the reader to fill in some of the blanks, but pulling the novel along at a pace that crescendos toward a resolution. It’s a book you’re going to want to pick up and not put down.

Favorite Quotes:

(read on Kindle, no page numbers)

“Twenty-four. It sounded so adult. Just last week, Wendy told someone she was twenty-three. Not because she was lying. She just forgot.”

“If you don’t start visiting more… we’ll be forced to go postal and start making semi-stalkerish trips to your home. Please don’t make me a wanted criminal before twenty-five.”

“It smelled like incense and whatever hope was made out of.”

“Wendy felt light. And she wanted to hold onto that lightness, like a delicate bubble threatening to pop.”

“She could paint anything she wanted to, any and all memories, but she would not repeat another painting. She wouldn’t repeat anything at all.”

“She’s all, I’m happy, let me spread some sunshine into your bleeding wounds.”

“When he hurt, he cut deep enough for only her to see.”

“If I die in a theme park because of a boy, then I probably deserve it.”

“She looked at him, and he looked at her the way you look your favorite thing in the world, like he absolutely, decidedly could not get enough of her.”

“Women did not watch Saturday cartoons and drink their coffee out of Disney princess mugs.”

“The more they fought, the less of a voice she had.”

“For Simon, everything started with a decision. For Wendy, everything started with a feeling. He decided to be with her. She wanted to be with him. He decided to love her. She just did.”

“Minds were easy to change. They were like dough, one minute balled up and the next pressed flat. But what about hearts? Those couldn’t be that malleable, could they?”

“She wasn’t going anywhere, but she liked knowing she could. Someday.”

“It was real. But real doesn’t make it permanent.”

“He wasn’t in any photos. He’d never seen this furniture before. They were two different people, leading completely separate lives.”

“She loved him the way that you love your favorite part of yourself.”

“You’re really brave.” “Why? For cutting someone out of my life who had no business being there? That’s not bravery. That’s common sense.”

“Love is a decision. It is not an emotion that we see on movie screens or read about in books. It isn’t the dramatic crescendo that leads to happily ever after. Love is hard work. It’s the decision you make, knowing your differences, knowing your flaws, but choosing anyway, because you can’t imagine life without the other person.”

“Being afraid is never stupid. Not acting is the stupid part.”

What made this a great story? I loved how perfectly average the lives of all the characters were. So often, we get stories about people leading exceptional lives, but its hard to relate to those. I like that Wendy and her friends were just trying to figure life out, and acknowledged that it is messy and hard and uncertain. I also loved that the main characters weren’t perfect: they were imperfect characters who fell in love and had to work through those faults. Bravo did an excellent job at tipping the story from light to dark and back again, adding just enough comic relief to balance the weighty material of first loves and heartbreak and learning that people let you down.

What could have made it a better story? I wanted a little more “oomph” to the characters. I wanted to know a little more of who Wendy and Simon were before they entered each other’s lives: what were there hobbies? Their personalities separate from one another? I’d also love to know why Wendy and Vivian are friends now that they are all grown up. What are Vivian’s redeeming qualities? Why does she still have a place in Wendy’s life after all these years? I know Bravo has a sequel in the works, so I’m hoping we learn some of these answers then!

Have you read These Are the Moments by Jenny Bravo? If so, what did you think? Do you have a book suggestion for me that you’d think I’d like? Let me know and I’ll add it to my list!

P.S. If you liked this, you’ll probably like Eleanor & Park!

Story in Review: Inked by Eric Smith

November 5, 2015 by Abbigail Kriebs Leave a Comment

If you loved the wave of dystopian YA fiction that shook our shelves in the last few years, your next read should be Inked By Eric Smith.

In Caenum’s world, coming of age means getting your Ink, and your Ink decides your future. He is all set to run away from home to avoid being branded with a future he doesn’t want when his future meets him abruptly right where he is – and in a way he never could have imagined.

Favorite Quotes:

“Just because I had to go didn’t mean I wanted to leave.”

“Ink was like that. Always suggesting and nudging, always spot on.”

“Which is exactly why it scared me. I wanted to know myself first.”

“I was busy brooding, and I was getting good at it.”

“Great things can happen if you just take the time to help, take the risk, take the chance.”

“As if I finally understood something about my strange, confusing little life. A connection to the earth, in a way my parents never had. They harvested its bounty. But I could control it.”

“The Citadel manages to keep the world under its thumb by never letting anyone try to be something greater.”

“There was joy in this.”

“Be fearless. Be bold. Be Magic.”

“We will not be like the Citadel. We will be better.”

“This wasn’t the same girl who broke down at the sight of her home burning. She radiated strength, glowed with power.”

“According to the Citadel, you might have been born to work the land. But according to the fate you’ve made for yourself, you were meant to save it.”

“When you’re fighting a war, you start to realize how little time you might have left.”

What made this a good story? This novel is quickly paced and full of action. Smith nails all the teenage feelings and heightened emotional states. The plot is superb, both following and upending some YA stereotypes, while introducing some memorable characters. Like both The Hunger Games and Divergent trilogies, Smith uses the turmoil of a dystopian society to discuss right and wrong in a way that makes the conversation relevant and engaging for teens. I could see this book being a conversation starter in middle and high school classrooms, while still capturing the imagination of the students there.

What could have made it a better story? The novel follows a good many YA clichés: there’s a love story, a chosen one (also an orphan), someone alone who can change the course of their world. But they’re clichés for good reason: it’s a formula we have all come to know and to love. We know how to engage with and root for the underdog. We love watching two people slowly swirl toward one another as they discover who they really are. I do wish there had been a little more character development in the beginning: Caenum and Dreya are in love, but why? What do they love about each other? What makes the other person special other than that they live next door? I wish each character would have had a little more story to themselves instead of only as shared with another.

What about you? Have you read Inked By Eric Smith? What did you think? If not, what YA novel should I tackle next?

P.S. Smith just announced a sequel! I’ll definitely be giving it a read in Spring 2016.